Though most cases are in the remote border area of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, alarm over Ebola’s spread grew last month when a U.S. citizen died in Nigeria of the virus after arriving from the region.

A nurse who treated Patrick Sawyer has now also died in Lagos and at least five other people have been isolated with symptoms, raising fears of an outbreak in the city of 21 million people, Africa’s largest metropolis.

***

Already an unprecedented outbreak, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden says the number of infected and killed by Ebola will likely soon outnumber all other Ebola outbreaks in the past 32 years combined. According to the CDC, there have already been more than 1,700 suspected and confirmed cases of Ebola in West Africa, and more than 900 deaths—numbers which Frieden later called “too foggy” to be definitive. Ken Isaacs, the Vice President of Program and Government Relations for Samaritan’s Purse (SIM), painted an even bleaker picture. According to SIM, West Africa has counted 1,711 diagnoses and 932 deaths, already, which could represent only a small fraction of the actual number. “We believe that these numbers represent just 25-50 percent of what is happening,” said Isaacs.

In a six-hour meeting with the president of Liberia last week, Isaacs said SIM workers watched as the “somber” officials explained the gravity of the situation in their countries, where hundreds lie dead in the streets. “It has an atmosphere of apocalypse,” Isaacs said of the Liberia Ministry of Health’s status updates. “Bodies lying in the street … gangs threatening to burn down hospitals. I believe this disease has the potential to be a national security risk for many nations. Our response has been a failure.”

“The Ebola crisis we are now facing is not a surprise to us at Samaritan’s Purse, but it took two Americans getting the disease in order for the international community and the United States to take serious notice of the largest outbreak of the disease in history,” Isaacs said.

He characterized the initial international response to the Ebola outbreak as a “failure” because the virus spread outside the country where the outbreak originated. He said that a broader coordinated intervention is the only thing that will slow the size and speed of this disease.

***

Among the traditional practices the WHO says cannot be followed with Ebola victims: family-led body preparation and religious rituals that require direct contact with the corpse. Muslim tradition, for instance, requires that family members of the same gender should wash the body themselves before burial.

“When the person has just died, that is when the body is most contagious,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told The Post on Thursday. “It’s when the virus is overtaking the whole body.”

The problem is compounded because Ebola can force a victim’s body to release infectious fluids including blood, vomit and diarrhea, especially in later stages of the disease. That includes the most visually harrowing symptom of Ebola, present in some late-stage patients: bleeding from bodily orifices and rashes covering the skin.

***

A young man lies dead in the streets of Liberia, left to rot in view of passers-by and local children.

In Liberia, Mr Nyenswah said that the authorities were gradually getting the message across that Ebola was a threat, ending widespread myths such as that it was the work of witchcraft, could be cured by prayer, or was simply a ruse by the government to frighten people.

But he warned with 95 per cent of the country’s health infrastructure having been destroyed during the civil war of the Nineties, it was still “simply too weak” to cope with major challenges.

“We are hearing it is going to get worse before it gets better. We do not know how much worse that will be. My main worry is the fear of how many people will die. Right now it is out of control and jumps from place to place,” Ngafuan said.

Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told a press conference he had asked the US health authorities about the unproven medicines used on two American doctors, but was told such small quantities existed that west Africa would have to wait for months for supplies, even if they were proved safe and effective…

A spokesman for the US Centres for Disease Control said “there are virtually no doses available” and they would take several months to manufacture.

***

“We can stop Ebola” and “we have to stop it at the source in Africa,” Frieden told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations…

Isaacs, who is now vice president at Samaritan’s Purse, an aid group working in Liberia, said the African governments are overwhelmed by the Ebola epidemic and not capable of containing it.

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you are correct the Toyota’s are a bit off this year…
and you cant say that about all the Fords..
the 2 and the 22 are winning in Fords..
Jack is having a rough time finding cash,,
maybe Edwards wanted a ton of cash and Jack had to say no…maybe
sponsorship is tight in this economy..
and the National Guard is getting out now too…
(foolish move…imo…do the math)

That’s so 1940… It’s 2014, Evil Henchmen these days are just like the guy across the street (hell, they probably are the guy across the street), married, a couple of kids, a mortgage and trying to put their kids through college.

For G2M: Alternative to river rafting. We should give it a go. Teehee.
Been enjoying the lurk mode.
Re: Female Captain stripped of command…
Remember chatting with some officer’s wives who were peeved when women were first allowed to be on board ships.
I ended the conversation by piping up, “There isn’t anything they can do out there that they don’t do on land here.”
I also added that I thought they should give women their own ships, subs, and planes. The fleet would be in “ship shape” due to the competition of who’s the best.
Hubs was on board the Lady Lex with women. The only thing he complained about was a ship made in the ’40′s didn’t have plumbing made for women. A lot of time was wasted in heads instead of general up keep.
Late one night, group of women sailors where finding it hard to make it up the gangplank to the ship. Just about died of laughter seeing one of them in a T-shirt, sleeves rolled up, and a large heart with “DAD” tattooed in the middle.

Late one night, group of women sailors where finding it hard to make it up the gangplank to the ship. Just about died of laughter seeing one of them in a T-shirt, sleeves rolled up, and a large heart with “DAD” tattooed in the middle.
31giddyup on August 8, 2014 at 2:53 AM

Evening Dire
Hope life is treating you well.
G2M, read you’ve been working hard.
Hope you get out sometime this summer for some R & R.
RE: above comment. I’m a realist. Once the powers that be said women could serve there wasn’t much anyone could do about it. I see/saw the pros and cons to it.
All I know is, as much as I’d like to learn to fly now, I don’t think i’d like it very much, if I was a young whipper snapper, had my pilots license and was told I couldn’t serve in some way flying.

Tomorrow, August 9th, is the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation. A quick search of the news shows that the press is once again going to make a big deal out of the holiday. They are very proud of that scalp.

Tomorrow, August 9th, is the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation. A quick search of the news shows that the press is once again going to make a big deal out of the holiday. They are very proud of that scalp.
DisneyFan on August 8, 2014 at 3:36 AM

There’s a president I like listening to. Love hearing him in debates, give speeches, interviews, etc. Even in those secret tape recordings he is an interesting guy to listen to. He has such great recall. In a later interview he did about his life it was incredible to hear all the details he remembered from his childhood and early career.

He wasn’t any kind of principled politician at all, though. But he was a strong man, smart, capable, good husband. Not sleazy trash like Clinton.

There’s a president I like listening to. Love hearing him in debates, give speeches, interviews, etc. Even in those secret tape recordings he is an interesting guy to listen to. He has such great recall. In a later interview he did about his life it was incredible to hear all the details he remembered from his childhood and early career.

He wasn’t any kind of principled politician at all, though. But he was a strong man, smart, capable, good husband. Not sleazy trash like Clinton.

bluegill on August 8, 2014 at 4:24 AM

Yes, those recordings are very interesting. He was obviously one of our smartest Presidents.

On the downside, he wasn’t conservative at all. EPA, affirmative action, bad SCOTUS picks, secretly wanted to ban all handguns, etc. And he was paranoid as heck.

“Individuals and families immigrating to the U.S. legally are required to pay for and undergo medical examinations by approved physicians; those who are deemed as having “inadmissible health-related conditions” are not allowed into the country. But the same standards are not applied to illegal immigrants, many of whom remain in the U.S. despite testing positive for diseases that would prevent law-abiding migrants from entering.

The current border crisis has involved tens of thousands of Central Americans entering the U.S. illegally. Some of these individuals have tested positive for illnesses including tuberculosis, chicken pox, and other viruses–despite this, most of them are not immediately deported. Rather, they stay and receive medical care subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.

Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet–a preventive medicine physician, the former Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and a recipient of a 2014 Ellis Island Medal of Honor–told Breitbart Texas, “Legal immigrants are required to pay for medical exams and screening tests conducted by approved physicians before they arrive here. They’re not arriving in the U.S. carrying diseases, and then being dispersed into cities across the nation.”

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), all legal immigrants must be screened and approved before entering the U.S. The agency states on its website, “The health-related grounds for inadmissibility include persons who have a communicable disease of public health significance, who fail to present documentation of having received vaccination against vaccine-preventable diseases, who have or have had a physical or mental disorder with associated harmful behavior, or who are a drug abuser or an addict.”

But the same rules apparently do not apply to illegal immigrants.
According to Vliet, “vaccine-preventable” diseases include chicken pox, an infection common among the new wave of Latin American illegal immigrants.

So, while a prospective legal immigrant who has not been vaccinated for chicken pox would be barred from entering the U.S., unvaccinated individuals who enter the country illegally are being allowed to stay. “The CDC’s own guidelines are clearly being violated with regards to the illegal immigrants currently crossing the border,” Vliet stated.

The CDC website also claims that tuberculosis (TB) is a “disease of public health significance” that “would cause an applicant to fail a medical examination or be inadmissible” to the U.S.

TB has also been identified within the illegal immigrant population; the TB-infected individuals remain in the U.S. and receive subsidized medical treatment.

In some cases, Border Patrol agents and other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) staff have contracted diseases from infected migrants–many of whom are unaccompanied alien children (UAC)–in the U.S. illegally.

A DHS report issued last week stated, “Many UAC and family units require treatment for communicable diseases, including respiratory illnesses, tuberculosis, chicken pox, and scabies. DHS employees reported exposure to communicable diseases and becoming sick on duty. … Two CBP Officers reported that their children were diagnosed with chicken pox within days of the CBP Officers’ contact with a UAC who had chicken pox.”

Agents have also been exposed to TB by the migrant population, according to the DHS report. Fox News recently reported that at least one Border Patrol agent contracted a “severe” case of TB from infected illegal immigrants who he was caring for.

Many feel that by allowing infected illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. and receive free healthcare, they are being given preference over those who follow the rules by attempting to enter the U.S. legally.

“It’s not who we are as a nation to break our own laws and give preference to those who do,” Vliet stated. “In this case, those who follow the law have to pay….”

The reluctant CIC according to the mj panel…..why didn’t they see this coming they ask? Because they didn’t want yo know

cmsinaz on August 8, 2014 at 6:08 AM

Face it, Snuggles is boxed in politically. He did victory laps over how his super-smart policies left Iraq a better place than when the US military was there.

Congress isn’t going to let him put boots on ground so he can make empty promises about not starting a new war in Iraq. His party isn’t going to be too happy that there are any operations going on. And then there are the visuals of women and children trapped in the mountains of Northern Iraq. There is no good solution here so Snuggles made a speech last night and is leaving town for a couple weeks. Rest assured Mr. President, these problems will still be here when you, your disguting spouse and filthy brats come back from the vacation.

And BTW, did you catch that he said ISO instead of ISIS? I guess he must be thinking Islamic State of Obama.

Son gets his car back today from paint shop. He likes muscle cars, which is unusual for his age group. I rarely go out for lunch, but today I am taking some folks to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. Their homemade nuoc mam sauce is the best.

It’s 7:30 in DC and the lights have been burning in the White House for hours. Not because of operations in Iraq or the continuing trouble in Ukraine or Israel. No! The vacation starts tomorrow and there is tons of stuff that needs to be done to get the royal entourage ready for their annual trek to the land of Millionaire donors and lobster (Mooch brings her dressy bib for these occasions).

BTW, Obama leaves for vacation on the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation. I so wish that something else could be official at noon tomorrow other than this filthy family going off and spending millions of taxpayer dollars on yet another entertainment outing.